21 Health Benefits of Chia Seeds

Chia seeds are very small seeds that come from the mint family. While they look fairly innocuous and uninteresting, they are rapidly becoming more popular owing to a large number of different health benefits. For one, chia seeds are high in fiber and omega 3 fatty acid and at the same time, they have an almost magical ability to absorb fluid and hold onto it.

But there are plenty of foods out there that have lots of health benefits. There are even more than right now are enjoying a lot of popularity and that have become ‘fad foods’ to an extent. The question is whether or not chia seeds can really live up to their own hype. Should you make the trip to your local health store? Or are chia seeds not really all that?

In this post, we are going to examine just how useful chia seeds are and whether they really deserve the accolades. Spoiler alert: they are and they do. Prepare to be impressed by 21 different health benefits of chia seeds!

1.  Running

Chia seeds have quickly become popular among runners and other long-distance endurance athletes. Why? Because new research seems to suggest that these seeds might be very useful when it comes to improving our running speed, distance and performance.

The reason has to do with their ability to absorb water. Impressively, chia seeds can absorb up to 12 times their weight in water and then store it in the gut, allowing you to slowly absorb that fluid. This makes them fantastic for hydrating and means that you can get a steady supply of fluids when you need them during intensive exercise.

Chia seeds came to the fore for this reason relatively recently when they were featured in the book Born to Run. This book looked at the way humans are actually designed to be long distance runners, using the Tarahumara tribe of indigenous peoples as an example. In the book, it was shown how the Tarahumara used chia seeds in order to help them run vast distances – over 435 miles in two days in some cases!

Don’t get it mistaken though: just eating these seeds won’t guarantee you’ll be able to run that fast or that far. The Tarahumara also had a few other tricks up their sleeves, including the use of barefoot running!